Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Welcome back for part two of my STITCHES adventure where I show you the accessory part of my loot!

This awesome lady (pictured above ) was staffing the booth and she made the Stitch saver (pictured lower right) and her friend who was not at the booth made the bag (pictured lower left) Sadly at the moment I cannot find her business card but check back again and I should have the info posted.

This cute bag I picked up had a set of stitch markers with it! Very cute sheep and the stitch markers were plain black beads.

YarnPop was at STITCHES as well and I resisted buying anything for a couple times but I finally went and got this cute little bag because it was on sale! If anyone doesn't know I also have a tote bag by YarnPop.

Small bag I bought Tote bag my awesome friend Andrew bought me.

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Awesome news !

Everyone who is a constant reader should know I am doing the Skyline Tunic and I have been making huge headway! The back has been finished for a while now , the front was finished about a week ago and after only two days working on it , the first sleeve is complete! I'll cast on the second one tonight and hopefully I'll have the tunic all sewn up and blocking by Sunday night!

That's about it ramblers! I did buy some stitch markers but those are very scattered on different projects and what not so I elected to not take pictures of those. STITCHES was amazing and I made a couple new friends who I hope to see next year as well! And for those of you who didn't know I volunteered at STITCHES which means that next year I get a free class!

Monday, August 19, 2013

I realize it's been about two weeks since I had the amazing experience of going to stitches and that all of you have been waiting for my essay-length post about it! Well here it is!! Okay that's all folks, nothing more to see here.

Fooled you :) Anywho, it has taken me so long because of a combination of being too busy knitting (Finally finished the front of my sweater but more on that later), too busy hanging out with the boy (He starts school up again soon :( , and finally I went to a gaming convention this past weekend!

Enough with the excuses you say? Okay fine, onto the yarn! I met so many amazing designers and dyers and everyone was as nice as can be!

A picture of the amazing Alexandra and me holding a bundle of yarn I bought from her! She was so kind to me, she sent her assistant out to the van ( a very convoluted walk because of how security was set up) to get me more of the same dye lot just so I could have more variation to look at. Great customer Service! Her home base is in OR, USA so if you live there you should stop by!

Small section of her beautiful yarns!

A much better view of what I bought from her, the pink and grey is what she pulled more of for me. All of it is Diamond Lake, which is a fingering weight 20% Silk and 80% Superwash Merino (more info and so you can buy your own click on the link for her website)

Such a nice lady and I got to meet her boyfriend as well haha, gotta have help holding down the fort! The skein in my hand is very earthy green tones with a little yellow mixed and it's lace weight so I finally found a yarn for my Photosynthesis Shawl

Also a very neat opportunity : Natalie has suggested that if I do a giveaway she would be happy to collaborate with me on that! If you want that to happen I'd really appreciate it if you would comment your thoughts about it, thanks!

I wish I would've been smarter and snapped a picture of the lady at the Gryphon's booth, she was all decked out in absolutely gorgeous dresses all 3 days at STITCHES and it was fantastic! But alas I did not think to take a picture. Instead here is a skein of yarn that I bought from there!

Beautiful yarn that is 20 % cashmere! It's a sport weight yarn and if you click above for their website you can order some of your own! The colorway names are hilarious and the colorways themselves are beautiful/

These beautiful skeins were 50% off and wow did they have a lot on their clearance table, a yarnie's favorite thing to hear, am I right? The reddish one on the left is a blend of merino wool and bamboo so it is very light and I'm looking forward to making something for summer/fall with it (yes I bought more but its not in the picture) The purple one is 100 percent merino wool and is a very pretty variegation from dark purple to light and back again.

I am a sucker for discontinued yarns or orphans (aka single skeins of yarn that are the last ones and no more will be made) and of course, there was a whole flock of sheep worth of discontinued yarns at Cephalopod. I managed to walk away with just two skeins of Skinny Bugga, a fingering weight 80 percent Superwash Merino and 10 percent Cashmere / 10 percent nylon blend. So soft and the colorway name is Maxima Clam, I adore funny names on yarn. The third skein is a DK weight yarn that I will be using to remake Oak Trail since my last hat was stolen :(

Alrighty the yarn portion of this is over and to break it up I will be posting about the accessories I bought in a separate post later tonight or tomorrow morning.

Thank you everyone for reading and I hope you have (had) a yarn-tastic day

Monday, August 12, 2013

Contrary to my post title, Stitches isn't coming it already came! And I went 3 days, it was a lot of fun and wow there was a lot of yarn! Reminded me of what I want my house to look like. Teehee :)

Also contrary to what that previous paragraph makes you believe, I am not posting all of my awesome stuff I bought or even pictures of Stitches itself. This is simply a post letting you know that when I get a moment I'll be putting together a couple posts full of pictures and links and all those bells and whistles! It'll be great so please make sure you bookmark this blog, follow me, or whatever crafty way you keep viewing my posts!

Friday, August 2, 2013

Oh the places I'm going! Right now I'm in Michigan at the end of my vacation with Thane :) We went to A Grand Skein (I'd link to their website but it's down right now) and who would've guessed 50% off yarn sale! Not the whole store mind you but a nice sized cubby. I wasn't too bad, only got a few things!

Mirrorball in the beautiful red colorway Tango! You can't see it in the picture but it has little flecks of silver sparklys in it! Another amazing yarn from GoodforEwe :) Even already have a pattern picked out!

And that dear Ramblers is all I bought at the store! And some food but that doesn't quite count :)

*A Finished Project*

Well...Kind of. I present to you, a completed back of a tunic I am currently knitting!

Skyline Tunic is a pretty basic tunic that has some argyle-esque lace work on the front!

I am currently working on the lace pattern of the front of the tunic!

Other Newsy News

I am going to Stitches! For those of you who don't know Stitches is a huge knitting and yarn convention and I get to go for two days, I'll also be volunteering there so that next year I'll have credit for classes!

If you have been following this blog for a while you might know about my love of Alana Dakos, the podcast NeverNotKnitting and her amazing book Botanical Knits. Well guess who gets to meet her!!!!! This girl right here! I'm going to PA to go see one of my friends from college and she just so happens is doing her very first book signing / class outside of California! I'm going to take her class (which is on finishing a sweater...something I really need to learn haha) and take a ton of pictures!

That ladies and gentlemen is all I have for you in this lovely blog post :)